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Smart Pallets: Toward Self-Powered Pallet-level

Environmental Sensors for Food Supply Chains


Ali Saffari Vikram Iyer
saffaria@uw.edu vsiyer@uw.edu
University of Washington University of Washington

Zerina Kapetanovic Vaishnavi Ranganathan


zkapetanovic@microsoft.com vaishnavi.ranganathan@microsoft.com
Microsoft Research Microsoft Research
ABSTRACT
This work highlights the need for a low-cost and low-overhead
solution to monitor pallet-level environment in the food sup-
ply chain to create traceability, accountability and reduce
wastage. We identify post-harvest sensing through the sup-
ply chain as a key need to reduce food waste. Toward this
end, we develop initial prototypes of two different wireless
environmental sensing architectures. The first leverages an
ultra-low power timer with a current consumption of 35 nA to
power gate and periodically wake up the system. The second
mode explores a sparse event driven sensing model leveraging
the threshold detection features of low power sensors to log Figure 1: Food Supply Chain. We aim to monitor environ-
events of interest. We demonstrate a millimeter scale proto- mental data during transportation and storage processes
types that can read and backscatter temperature and humidity to reduce waste.
data with as little as 3.2 µW of power.
Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys ’22),
CCS CONCEPTS November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA,
6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3560905.3568420
• Hardware → Sensor applications and deployments; Wire-
less integrated network sensors; Sensor devices and plat-
forms. 1 INTRODUCTION
As the world population continues to grow estimates show
KEYWORDS that the demand for food is expected to increase by 59-98% by
Smart agriculture, wireless sensors, backscatter, RFID, WISP, 2050 [15]. Global hunger has been on the rise since 2014 [5],
smart pallet, environmental sensors, food supply chain and has been exacerbated in recent years by a set of mutually
compounding disasters including a global pandemic, conflicts,
ACM Reference Format:
Ali Saffari, Vikram Iyer, Zerina Kapetanovic, and Vaishnavi Ran-
and a changing climate. The UN State of Food Security re-
ganathan. 2022. Smart Pallets: Toward Self-Powered Pallet-level port 2021 projects that we are not on track to achieve the
Environmental Sensors for Food Supply Chains. In The 20th ACM global zero hunger goal by 2030 [9]. Climate change, in
particular, is expected to dramatically change global tempera-
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
tures, rainfall patterns, and other factors affecting our ability
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not
made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear
to produce food. Meanwhile, the continued destruction of
this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components rainforests and other carbon sinks for use as agricultural land
of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with only accelerates this trend. At the same time, the UN 2019
credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report estimates that 40
redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request percent of all food grown today is simply wasted [9]. While
permissions from permissions@acm.org.
SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA
solving this global challenge requires a host of new technolo-
© 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
gies and policy solutions across production and distribution,
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9886-2/22/11. . . $15.00 reducing such food loss presents an important opportunity to
https://doi.org/10.1145/3560905.3568420 sustainably improve increase food production.

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SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA Saffari, et al.

Why does so much food get wasted? Growing food such as for the various types of produce with different environment
produce or grains on a farm is merely the first step in a com- constraints. The latter is essential to enable reuse of these
plex supply and distribution chain that delivers produce from pallets to reduce cost of ownership of the system. The sen-
farms to consumers. This includes steps such as transport, sors also require memory to log their conditions and wireless
storage, packaging, and distribution, with each stage handled connectivity to communicate data without need for manual
by separate supply chain entities that stretch across the globe. intervention at scale.
For example, apples are harvested in a particular season in Our key insight is that standalone timing chips available as
the US but are often sold throughout the year and shipped discrete solutions or integrated into sensors have significantly
internationally [14]. Domestically grown apples are stored lower currents than many microcontrollers. We explore two
in controlled atmosphere environments with low temperature architectures that leverage this observation. The first design
and oxygen to prevent ripening and degradation. Then ship- choice uses an ultra-low-power timer to periodically measure
ments are periodically sent to a packing facility. The packing temperature and humidity, transmit the data, and can last 2
facility then sorts them into boxes and bags for retailers and years on a 240 mAh coin cell battery. The second design
holds them in cold storage. The fruit are then shipped to distri- choice implements a simplified sparse-data algorithm that
bution centers and again placed in cold storage before finally leverages the threshold detection capabilities of low-power
arriving at a grocery store for consumers. temperature sensors to only wake the microcontroller upon
While the exact steps vary for different food crops and excursions outside of the desired temperature range. The mi-
may be even more extensive for those that cross international crocontroller can then log events locally and communicate
borders, this example highlights the complexity of produce them. If the temperature stays within desired levels, the sen-
supply chains. Extensive research has shown that maintaining sor could also be configured to periodically transmit health
controlled environments, specific to the produce, in each of packets with sensor data.
these stages of storage and transport can help preserve the This method enables ultra-low power data logging of key
quality of produce and prevent premature spoilage [10, 13]. events that could have affected the food. In addition, it reduces
With 21% of total food waste arising from spoilage of fresh the amount of unnecessary data transmission that inundates
fruits, and vegetables, temperature sensitivity is a key factor typical IoT systems and simplify network protocols. This
in over half of food that goes to waste. The ability to track sparse-data algorithm is advantageous especially in case of
the conditions the produce experiences on this journey would slow changing parameters like temperature and humidity that
open up numerous opportunities for reducing food loss. For are vital produce conditions. Moreover, local logging would
example, by knowing a particular shipment of fruit had expe- enable this data can be read at any step in the supply chain to
rienced high temperatures, a retailer could prioritize selling make informed decisions about handling the produce more
that shipment of fruit first, incentivize consumers to buy them efficiently.
quickly, or sell them to processors who could use them for We summarize the three contributions of this short paper
juice or other products. Moreover, if we could track parame- below:
ters such as temperature at a more granular level, those same (1) Highlight the need for post harvest sensing. We dis-
strategies could be employed for smaller batches of fruit that cuss the critical problem of food waste and need for en-
may have experienced non-uniform warmer conditions during vironmental sensing in the food supply chain. In the post
harvest, transport or storage. harvest supply chain, we identify pallet level environmental
Achieving traceability, however, requires addressing sev- sensing as a key enabling technology to reducing wasted
eral challenges. As explained above, food travels through produce.
many stages in the supply chain which are often managed by
(2) Continuous monitoring prototype. We develop an ini-
different entities. Even large retailers that have sophisticated
tial prototype and architecture that uses an ultra-low-power
sensing and data operations for their part of the supply chain
timer to periodically measure temperature and humidity
have no insight into the prior steps. To address this need, we
and transmit the data. We demonstrate this prototype can
propose a smart pallet platform that can persistently track
last 2 years on a 240 mAh coin cell battery.
the temperature and other environmental conditions experi-
enced by the food post-harvest and through multiple stages in (3) Sparse sensing prototype. We develop a prototype of a
the supply chain. However, implementing sensors on a pallet millimeter scale event driven tag that could log temperature
raises other technical challenges. The sensor itself must not and humidity. We demonstrate that even with when taking
add high cost and maintenance overhead. The sensor must measurements and backscattering data every 10 seconds
last through the lifetime of the pallet which can span over the system only consumes 3.2 µW of power.
years. It must be generic for use with various types of produce
but at the same time be configurable to enable flexible use

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Smart Pallets: Sensing for Food Supply Chains SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA

Figure 2: We propose deploying self-powered environmen-


tal sensors on each food pallet stored at the warehouse or
being transported by the truck to monitor temperature (a) Block diagram (b)
Board
and humidity throughout the supply chain.

2 RELATED WORK Figure 3: Sensor prototype hardware and block diagram


for the periodic mode.
Recent years have seen significant interest in applying IoT
solutions to agriculture. This includes multiple projects such
[8, 12, 16] that aim to measure or estimate key metrics such as is developing stickers that seek to chemically slow aging of
temperature, soil moisture and other parameters across a farm produce [2]. Our work seeks to complement these efforts by
to enable optimal crop yields. These works however focus focusing specifically on optimizing the power, cost and form
entirely on the food production, and do not extend beyond the factor of an environmental sensor tag for pallet level tracking.
boundaries of the farm after food is harvested from a field. In
contrast, this work complements these efforts by developing 3 SYSTEM DESIGN AND
traceability solutions for the post-harvest supply chain.
IMPLEMENTATION
Existing methods for measuring environmental conditions
include chemical sensors such as paper based humidity checks Our goal is to design self-powered environmental sensors
used in electronics shipping shows a color change when a that can be deployed in food pallets and monitor temperature
specific threshold is crossed. Similarly commercial solutions and humidity to reduce food waste. To achieve this goal,
such as Varcode SmartTags creates a dynamically changing our design must be self-powered, in other words, the sensor
barcode that provide cumulative temperature-time exposure. should be able to harvest power for its operation and not rely
While this method provides the lowest cost for individual tags, on a plug connection or have a battery lifetime equivalent
it also has a number of shortcomings. First, the tags data is to the pallet (∼2-3 years depending on repairs and use [3]).
read visually requiring a human or automated camera system Additionally, the sensor needs to transfer data to an access
to scan and log the specific tag on each pallet. Second, chemi- point via a wireless link. Below we describe two modes of
cal tags that hold information provide a one time measurement operation: a periodic mode where the sensor regularly samples
of whether a single threshold had been exceeded and cannot data and transmits it to an access point, and the second is
be modified after production to meet the temperature specs for an event driven mode which logs data until the sensor is
different products. Third, these tags are single use requiring queried. Fig. 2 shows four pallets equipped with wireless
manual attachment of the correct temperature threshold tag sensors to measure and report data to a control center. We
on each shipment. In contrast, a single programmable digital can break down our system into three major subsections: 1)
sensor could check both high and low temperature thresholds a periodic mode sensor that measures data continuously, 2)
repeatably as well as provide quantitative data. This could a control center for aggregating data, and 3) a miniaturized,
be especially useful as the optimal action for a pallet that asynchronous, event driven sensor.
exceeded the cutoff by 10° may differ from one that exceeded
a threshold by only 1°. A programmable sensor integrated 3.1 Periodic Mode Sensor
into the pallet could also be easily reprogrammed to wipe any In highly perishable fruits such as berries, there is a strong
data logged on the device and enable seamless reuse of the need for periodically checking the sensor data in order to pri-
same pallets for a variety of different products. oritize or divert a shipment in real time. To enable ultra-low
A handful of recent startups have begun developing tech- power operation, we observe that the RTC timing circuits on
nologies in this space such as Zest labs which combine sensors many microcontrollers consume significantly higher power
with additional analytics and quality control to offer an end than their shutdown modes. For example, the TI CC1312 con-
to end solution [6]. The specifications of Zest’s solutions are sumes 0.85 µA to periodically wake itself up off its internal
not publicly available for comparison. Additionally Ryp Labs RTC while only requiring 150 nA in its deepest sleep mode.

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SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA Saffari, et al.

Sleep Mode

Measure Temp.
humidity

Measure
Are we sending Battery Voltage
Yes
health packet? Add it to data
packet Yes

No

Send data and


wait for Ack.
from control
center
Figure 5: Our MATLAB application to display and pro-
No cess data.

Did we Since we do not lose the counter information between the


receive an
Ack.?
wake-ups we can use the counter value to find out if the sensor
should a data packet or a health packet. Next, the MCU reads
TI HDC3020 sensor’s data through a I2C connection and uses
FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) protocol to wirelessly send the
Figure 4: Flowchart for the sensor’s operation in periodic results to the control center. Finally, after the transmission,
mode. 𝑇 is the timer period. Between five wake-ups we the sensor switches to receiving mode and waits to receive an
transmit a health to the control center to make sure our acknowledgement signal from the center. If the transmission
sensors are operative. fails or no Ack. is received, the sensor returns to transmit
The trade-off howerver is that the latter requires an external mode and re-sends the data up to two more times. If all three
timing or wakeup signal. We generate this by instead using attempts fail we turn off the sensor completely and wait for
the dedicated ultra-low power TPL5111 Timer which only the next wake-up event. Fig. 4 shows the flowchart of the
requires 35 nA to run bringing the total sleep current to 185 sensor’s operation. Each sensor node, equipped with an ultra-
nA. low power timer is in deep-sleep mode until the timer activates
We leverage the timer for granular duty cycling and turn the node to measure the data. In this flowchart, 𝑇 is the wake-
off every components on the board except for the the power up period.
harvester and TI TPL5111 timer [4]. The timer period is set Ambient Light Energy Harvesting. We use TI BQ25570
to five minutes by selecting a 43 kohms resistor. The total harvester IC to collect energy from ambient light using a small
current consumed by the timer is 35 nA which is supplied solar panel to enable self-powered sensing. Our harvester uses
by a 240 mAh coin rechargeable battery. Our self-powered a rechargeable 240 mAh battery as the storage element.
sensor node is in deep sleep mode and harvests energy from
ambient light until the timer activates the node to measure 3.2 Control Center
environmental data, transfer them to the control center and Our control center receives data from registered sensors in
wait to receive an ACK before returning to sleep mode. Fig. 3 the network and shows the results in an application developed
shows the block diagram and our sensor prototype. in MATLAB. The control center has a Texas Instruments
Health/Data Packet. As mentioned, every five wake-ups CC1312 [1] radio to receive data packets from the nodes, and
our sensor sends a health packet to the control center to notify transmit acknowledgment packets to them. To display and
the center the sensor’s battery is charged. The packet has process the data, we implement a UART connection between
battery voltage information in addition to temperature and the TI radio and a laptop. This connection enables us to trans-
humidity values. fer data from the radio memory to the application designed in
Active Mode. The timer’s output signal enables the voltage MATLAB.
regulator that powers the sensor after every wake up event. MATLAB Application. Fig. 5 shows a screenshot from
Our TI CC1312 radio turns on and increments a counter value the application. The user is required to enter the number of
stored in the non-volatile memory unit after each wake-up. the sensors in the node and start the process. As the data

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Smart Pallets: Sensing for Food Supply Chains SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA

a) b)
100
Microcontroller
Outdoor
Power (μW)

Power
75 I2C MEMORY PKT GEN TX/RX
Indoor Harvesting
Switch
50 INTERRUPT
Back-
scatter
25 Switch
HDC2010 Z1 Z2
0 MEMORY Timer Envelope Detector
0 20 40 60 80 THRESH

Illuminance (klx) % +
- INT

c) HDC2010 d)
ATtiny20
MCU
e) Sensor Type Memory (B)
Sampling On time Peak Off time Off current Avg Current Avg Power
RF rate (Hz) (ms) current (ms) (uA) (uA) (uW)
Switch 2 mm Temp 674 0.1 3.137 2.29 9.9969 0.295 1.01 2.84
Temp + RH 734 0.1 3.627 2.29 9.9964 0.295 1.13 3.15

Figure 6: a) Comparison of solar power indoor and outdoor for a high efficiency 37.5 mm2 cell. b) Schematic for event
driven sensor. c) Millimeter scale event sensor prototype using an ATtiny20 microcontroller connected to the HDC2010
temperature sensor and backscatter switch. d) Backscatter packet format. e)Event driven prototype power data.

is received through the UART connection from the radio, food products. At the end of the supply chain, a grocery store
we update the GUI. We display temperature, humidity, alert could also use this information to prioritize which boxes to
(whether data is outside the normal range), last update (last put on display or whether to discount the fruit to accelerate
packet is received from each sensor), RSSI ( received signal sales.
strength), and battery voltage. Implementing this system requires three primary compo-
ACK Process. As mentioned in this section, we need to nents: a sensor to detect the data, a microcontroller with
develop an acknowledgement process, wherein the control nonvolatile memory to store the data, and a method of read-
center notifies the sensor that the data is received by the access ing it wirelessly. To implement this with minimum size and
point without any errors. To enable this, we switch control power, we leverage the interrupt capability built into certain
center radio’s mode to transmit mode as soon as a packet temperature sensors. Specifically, we observe that the TI HDC
is received. Also, the sensor node switches to receive mode temperature sensor series (HDC2010 and HDC3020) have
once it sends a packet. In this mode, the control center sends the ability to generate interrupts on programmable alert con-
the packet back to the sensor to let it know that the data is ditions when the temperature or humidity exceeds a value.
received. If the acknowledgement signal is not received by Additionally the HDC3020 has the ability to store the mini-
the sensor within the specified period, the sensor re-transmits mum and maximum temperature measured by the chip which
the packets up to two more times. allows this data to persist throughout the supply chain.
This enables ultra-low power operation by leveraging the
3.3 Event Driven Mode Sensor sleep mode of the temperature sensor which is only 55 nA.
For a microcontroller such as the ATtiny20, keeping it in a
In addition to continuous monitoring provided by the active
low power mode with its RTC running to periodically wake
mode above, we explore an even lower power event driven
up and read sensor data takes 15-20 uW. In comparison, this
mode. The ideal conditions for a given fruit or vegetable
chip consumes less than 500 nA in its lowest power shutdown
are known and would ideally be maintained throughout the
mode. This ultra-low power is important for robust operation
supply chain through cold storage, etc. The ability to detect if
on harvested solar power. Fig. 6a shows measurements of
a pallet had experienced conditions outside this range would
solar power from a high efficiency 37.5 mm2 solar cell. While
enable actors throughout the supply chain to optimize for
it gives large amounts of power outdoors, indoors in ware-
minimal waste. For example, if a pallet of fruit exceeded
houses and packing plants where light levels are typically
a temperature boundary, a distributor could prioritize it for
200-500 lux the power is dramatically lower [7]. Prior work
shipping. Alternatively if this were an indication it would
indicates that indoor power availability in these conditions is
not meet the quality standards for a grocery store, it could
instead be sold to a processing plant to make juice or other

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SenSys ’22, November 6–9, 2022, Boston, MA, USA Saffari, et al.

typically 0.7 µW/cm2 . In order to achieve a robust implemen- be integrated with novel sensing solutions to measure quan-
tation, we target a design that can run on <5 µW which can tities of interest for food ripening. These include a number
be powered by a reasonably sized solar cell or on harvested of gas concentrations such as oxygen ethylene in addition
RF power with the appropriate infrastructure. to temperature. Additionally this work could be expanded to
To leverage this low power external interrupt strategy, we different foods. Post-harvest supply chain sensing still has
can configure an HDC2010 sensor to measure temperature numerous unsolved sensing and networking challenges and
at its lowest rate, every 2 min. We can then program the we encourage the community to further explore this domain.
TH_ENABLE, Threshold HIGH, and Threshold LOW regis-
ters on the chip to generate an interrupt when the high or low REFERENCES
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